5.5 month old EW but not hungry

[donegalciara]

Hi everyone! I'm in desperate need of advice/suggestions/help! My lb is 5.5 months old and has been a dream baby from day 1 as regards sleeping and feeding. He had a stomach bug, picked up from my lg, when he was 11 weeks old and ever since he's regressed with his feeding and sleep ☹️ We started him on solids a week ago on our doctors advice as he was underweight and we were struggling to get more than 14oz into him a day. This has gradually improved thankfully!
He started sleeping from 7.30- 7/7.30 from about 7 weeks but in the last 3 weeks he has started to wake at 5am, fall back asleep after a half hour only to wake at 6am and is ready to start the day!! This 6am start is like clockwork, we could almost set our watch to him. I've eliminated external stimuli and it's never hunger as we push back the feed til 6.45 and the most he usually takes is 4/5oz at a push. He never cries to get up just chats to himself and rolls about his cot. On occasion I'm sure he's awake earlier and I actually don't even hear him!!!!

Anyway his routine looks a bit like this :
6/6.10 wakes chatting to himself
E: 6.30/6.45 Bottle (4/5oz)
A: 6.10-8.30 (I try to push the A here to 2hrs 20 but he's usually exhausted)
S : 8.30/8.45 -10/10.15
E: 10.30 Bottle (6oz) and fruit purée
A : 10.30-12.15 (2.5 hrs from WU)
S: 12.15-1.45
E: 2.30 (6/7oz bottle)
A: 1.45-4.15 (2hrs 30 usually)
S: 45 min (this is usually a CN. Lately he's starting to refuse this nap so nearing the 3-2 stage I think and yet today he has slept from 4.45- 6.15??)
E: 6.45/7 pm (6/7 oz bottle )
He's usually in bed by 7.15. I try to ensure he's had an A of 2hrs min before bedtime so if he naps long I push bedtime back.
He self soothes and goes down awake. He sleeps within 5/10 mins and is sound asleep until 5am. I have noticed he is passing a lot of wind when I lift him so not sure if this could be waking him? If anyone has any advice I would greatly appreciate it. I'm back to work in 3 weeks time and don't know how I'm going to cope if this continues 😞
Thanks

[lolsyb1982]

Hi, yes you've got it.... You've started the 3-2. Have you had a read of the following?

All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months

You will need to try and start pushing the A time slightly, try 10 mins every couple of days until you get to 3hrs, whilst cutting the cn until you can eventually get rid of it.
You should see nights begin to lengthen again then. It's pretty standard to have a 10.5 hr night when still on 3 naps.

HTH

[donegalciara]

Thanks so much for your reply. I had suspected it was the 3-2 transition at play but it's always reassuring to hear it from another mammy 😊 Thanks again. Here's hoping it works now 😉

[lolsyb1982]

Do come back if you need any more support along the way.

[donegalciara]

Hi thank you for being so kind! Things aren't improving yet unfortunately. I've been pushing out the A to 2hr 45 and capping the CN at 20 mins but still waking at 5/6am 😞 I know he's down on his milk intake but I've done everything possible to encourage him including singing, dancing, walking outside, quiet dark room, gentle music...you name it! It's a huge success to get him to take 6oz but on average he takes 4-5 oz per feed. He is on 4 feeds a day (usually takes about 15-17oz) and then will always take his best feed at the dream feed, usually 7/8 oz. As he's underweight I have been relying on the dream feed to bump up his weight a bit but now I'm wondering if it's hindering his daytime intake?? I usually do the DF at 11pm so thinking of pulling this forward to 10.30 maybe?
Anyways I'll post his routine yesterday so you can see what you think. This resulted in him stirring from 5am and waking at 6am this morning😟
WU: 6.20 am
E.  : 7am (4.5oz)
A.  : 6.20-9am
S   : 9-10.50 am
E.  : 11.15 (5oz)
A.  : 10.50-1.40
S.  : 1.40-3.45
E.  : 4pm (4oz)
A.  : 3.45- 7pm
      Bath 6.20
      Bottle 6.45 (4oz)
      Bed 6.55
If you have any suggestions or thoughts I'de be so grateful ☺️

[donegalciara]

Forgot to add that he is almost 24 weeks now. He is on 2 spoon feeds (baby cereal in morning and fruit in afternoon, roughly 2 tbsp each) on doctors advice due to being underweight and off his bottles. He wasn't keen on the spoon feeds until a couple days ago so I've only just upped the quantity and number of feeds yesterday.

[lolsyb1982]

Hi your routine looks really good!
technically he's not EW as he's going to bed at 7 and waking at 6.20. That's over 11hours which is pretty good. I would say anything over 10.5 is about average when going through the 3-2. I know it's early for us mummy's though!

Once he's on 2 naps you may see his nights lengthen to nearer 12 but 11 hours is still typical for many lo's.

You could try bringing the DF forward if you think it's having an impact on his morning feed. Neither of my girls have been big eaters and my 8 month old still only takes a max of 6oz. Has he dropped centiles for the doctor to worry?

[donegalciara]

Hiya, I can't remember exactly how  much he had dropped but the paediatrician just said he was underweight for his age and length and to introduce baby rice earlier to try and help with his weight. They took still samples too to eliminate any other digestive reasons for his slow weight gain and we're still waiting on the results back. He has another checkup next week so will see how he's doing then. Fingers crossed he'll have improved a bit!
I guess ur right re the morning wake up! Perhaps by bringing the dream feed forward I could get to bed earlier myself and be better able to handle the 6am start!! Thanks for all ur advice and support! It keeps me sane knowing there's someone on here to turn to 😉